Smart KLT Robot SOTO Automates Logistics in Injection Moulding Production

Boost­ing Effi­ciency and Opti­mis­ing Trans­port Processes with Flex­i­ble Mate­r­ial Flow Automation
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Automa­tion of injec­tion mould­ing machines and their periph­er­als is already well advanced. High space util­i­sa­tion in injec­tion mould­ing pro­duc­tion requires care­ful plan­ning, espe­cially for all oper­a­tions related to production.

How­ever, in-house logis­tics still mostly rely on man­ual processes. Shift work, waves of ill­ness or the intro­duc­tion of new prod­ucts or machines often pose staffing chal­lenges for companies:

High labor costs

Skilled work­ers are tied up and can­not be deployed where their exper­tise has a direct impact on pro­duc­tion. Automa­tion and process opti­mi­sa­tion are key to chang­ing this.

Skills short­age

Tire­some tasks and demo­graphic change are mak­ing the search for skilled labour increas­ingly dif­fi­cult. Mod­ern, auto­mated processes ease the work­load, increase the company’s attrac­tive­ness as an employer and cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for skilled labour to gen­er­ate added value.

Ergonom­ics

In shift work, phys­i­cal strain quickly adds up. Automa­tion of trans­port, work­ing along­side humans, offers a solution.

Human resources

Flex­i­ble work­ing and pro­duc­tion mod­els require sig­nif­i­cant plan­ning efforts. Intel­li­gent automa­tion solu­tions pro­vide the nec­es­sary flexibility.

From the per­spec­tive of expected effi­ciency gains and increased employee sat­is­fac­tion alone, automa­tion of your trans­port tasks is well worth con­sid­er­ing. Fur­ther­more, process opti­mi­sa­tion in logis­tics bridges the gap between auto­mated ware­hous­ing and auto­mated production.

Take the next log­i­cal step towards opti­mis­ing your processes and imple­ment automa­tion in the inter­nal logis­tics within your ware­house and pro­duc­tion envi­ron­ment with SOTO, our inno­v­a­tive mobile KLT robot.

Check out our WAGO case study video to see for yourself!

Video

Intel­li­gent KLT Sup­ply with the Logis­tics Robot

SOTO

The smart SOTO excels in injec­tion mould­ing pro­duc­tion. This autonomous mobile robot (AMR) is specif­i­cally designed to work safely along­side both humans and other machines.

 

Con­nected to the rel­e­vant ERP and MES sys­tem, SOTO receives its orders auto­mat­i­cally and com­pletes them inde­pen­dently thanks to its built-in intel­li­gence: it nav­i­gates autonomously between the auto­matic small parts ware­house (AKL) and the injec­tion mould­ing machine, exchang­ing full KLTs for empty ones. Mate­r­ial track­ing via bar­codes is pos­si­ble at any time.

Its large trans­port capac­ity keeps traf­fic within the pro­duc­tion area to a min­i­mum. Over­all, it cre­ates new oppor­tu­ni­ties to increase man­u­fac­tur­ing effi­ciency and deploy skilled work­ers where they are truly needed.

With its unique abil­ity to adapt to chang­ing pro­duc­tion con­di­tions while safely inter­act­ing with humans and machines alike, SOTO takes your logis­tics to the next level: flex­i­ble, scal­able, and efficient.

KLT exchange accord­ing to machine cycle times

SOTO autonomously col­lects full KLTs from the machine and places empty con­tain­ers based on machine cycle times.

Intel­li­gent grip­ping system

SOTO can accu­rately iden­tify and han­dle KLTs regard­less of their size, posi­tion, or height. If needed, it can rotate KLTs by 90° or 180°.

High trans­port capac­ity with mate­r­ial tracking

Up to 24 KLTs can be trans­ported simul­ta­ne­ously, 24/7. This ensures a con­tin­u­ous mate­r­ial flow and trans­parency through bar­code scanning.

Seam­less process inte­gra­tion and scalability

SOTO can be quickly and eas­ily inte­grated into exist­ing processes and adapted at any time. The sys­tem is also scal­able accord­ing to your needs.